Meet AIA USGBC Design Fellow Stacey McMahan

Meet AIA USGBC Design Fellow Stacey McMahan

Stacey (seated at right) is seriously green. I don't mean new (although she's that as well, to our Haiti team, having joined us last month in Port-au-Prince), but, you know, ECO. Sustainable. Stacey is working with Architecture for Humanity as our Design Fellow delegate from the United States Green Building Council, or USGBC, better know for the development of the LEED certification system (see an overview, Stacey's in fact, of how LEED can work in Haiti).

Stacey hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she is Principal and Green Studio Director for the architecture firm Koch Hazard. It's an honor that she accepted our invitation to work in Haiti for a year and I'm sure countless people will benefit from her wisdom.

Being a LEED-certified architect comes with it certain responsibilities. For instance, buildings can't simply be drawn up and thrown together at the whim of some designer's ego or some owner's deep pockets. Sustainable architecture has more responsibilities than that. Like reducing its overall impact on the planet. There's a whole slew of simple tricks that buildings can use to be more efficient and sensible. It could by anything from bike parking to reusing rainwater to rehabilitating toxic land. I couldn't tell you the whole list off the top of my head but STACEY COULD by the sheer momentum of her awesomeness. (She would sooner say "nifty-ness" or "grooviness," but we're bringing her verbage up to date..."wicked" and "totes rad" are still in the works.)